"Edmond Hamilton - Calling Captain Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

Gatola's eyes were protruding in amazement. But
came to rest near the observatory, and Curt saw its
Curt gave the Martian no time to voice his bewilder-
door opening.
ment.
A dozen men emerged, soundlessly as shadows.
"Leave here at once, Gatola," Captain Future or-
Two took up their places as guards outside the ship's
dered. "Otho will take your place here for tonight. Un-
door, the starlight glinting on their atom-pistols. The
derstand?"
others moved silently and rapidly toward the observato-
"I don't understand," said the Martian dazedly, "but
ry.
I'll go. I'll go home, and stay there."
Captain Future crouched lower in the shadow as
When the Martian had gone, Curt gave Otho his fi-
they passed. In the starlight, they appeared as Earthmen
nal instructions.
wearing a gray uniform, on each shoulder the black
"If the Legion of Doom ship comes, it will land out-
disk of the Legion of Doom. Led by hulking, heavy-
side. Part of its crew at least will come in here to seize
treading giant, they entered the building.
Gatola тАУ you. I want you to argue with them, resist
"Damn those guards!" Curt thought, peering at the

12
 Edmond Hamilton тАУ CALLING CAPTAIN FUTURE

two Legionaries standing outside the ship door. compartment. He stared at Curt, then reached for his
He drew out a disklike instrument from his tungstite atom-gun.
belt. "Annoying, but necessary," he muttered. "I'll have Curt was already triggering his proton-pistol. It
to resort to invisibility, if I want to avoid their giving an could be set either to kill or to stun, and it was a stun-
alarm." ning ray that licked out now. The pale, thin beam
One of the greatest secrets of the red-haired scientif- dropped the man in his tracks.
ic wizard was his power of making himself invisible. Then Curt saw the door in the corridor that had a bar
He did it by giving his body a temporary charge of across it. He unbarred and swung it open. Inside was a
force which refracted all light around it, making him dark little blank-walled chamber, but he could see two
completely unseen. The effect lasted only for ten min- people.
utes тАУ but that should be time enough, Curt thought. One was an Earth girl in a gray silk zipper suit, sit-
He held the disklike instrument over his head, and ting with her dark head bowed tiredly in her hands. The
pressed its stud. An unseen force streamed down other was a little, withered, wasplike old Venusian.
through his body, tingling through every fiber. Looking "Joan! Kansu Kane!" Curt whispered tensely.
down at himself, he saw his body becoming rapidly "Come on тАУ we're getting out of here!"
translucent, misty. At the same time, darkness seemed Joan Randall looked up, and as she saw the tall,
to close around him. broad-shouldered, red-haired young man standing with
He heard an uproar from inside the observatory тАУ pistol raised in the doorway, she uttered a little cry of
Otho shouting in Gatola's voice, a clatter of feet and pure, tremulous joy.
banging of furniture. Otho was doing his part to hold up "Captain Future! I knew you'd come тАУ"